Brushing Souls
by lostinelysia
Summary: Blood. Blood. Blood so thick that his hair has turned a different shade because it never washed out. Darkish story about a boy who doesn't understand anything.


Disclaimer: Don't own Ragnarok Online or anything at all.

Full moon's out and people are streaming out of pubs and inns, forming delicate alliances just to hunt the werewolves. Taka looks on with interest, in a little café, pre-hunt adrenaline pumping through his muscles and making his fingers shake. Maybe tonight will be the night when he joins the crowd and kills the creature whose howls pierces the hearts of novices and champions alike, with claws that tear past the ground weaving faster than the beats of a blood butterfly's wings. He shudders in anticipation and anxiously checks his bow string, which so taut he thinks it may break.

Two merchants walk past, swinging their axes like they're something to fear and pushing their carts with a single hand. They gossip happily about the aftermath of the last hunt. "You know Ram? The leader of my guild?" says the smirking one, with a buster that looks like it's missing half its handle. Taka looks with subdued pride at his own ballista, polished and cared for so carefully it looks like it has never been used.

"What about him?" The other one, a girl with dirty brown hair and a drawling accent asks.

Her companion stops and smirks at her. "Last hunt, he got an emperium from the wolf. Made our guild with it, and we already have twenty members." He scrapes his buster against the wall of the café and looks like he owns the world.

She raises an eyebrow and pulls an apple out of her cart, munching noisily. "Impressive."

"I know. He told us he threw the last hit at it. Blood was squirting everywhere and this one priest almost died when the werewolf was all screaming with pain and thrashing around. It clawed him in the throat or something—left a wicked scar anyway. Crazy stuff, wish I was there to see it." They walk away, seemingly determined to witness a replay of throats being ripped open.

Taka sits in his chair, at his table, alone. Suddenly, his breathing is back to normal and all the adrenaline seems to dry out, leaving him cold and empty. People walk and run past him, yelling at each other to hurry up, because the werewolf was spotted only five hundred yards from here. They better run, or else it'll be dead, and they won't get any hits in…they won't see the blood spurting out of its head and dripping down onto the cold ground, they won't see the useless acolytes hurriedly healing themselves as the werewolf bears down on them in the last seconds of their death. But mostly, they won't get all the treasure it leaves behind if they don't sprint to the scene.

* * *

He wonders if he is strange. Everyday, after he has finished with his work, he sits in his favorite café, in his special, unnoticed corner, with a cup of steaming tea and a plate of warm spaghetti or roasted condor on his plate, watching the continuous stream of people flow in the doors and out the doors, back onto the streets and on with their lives. He notices thing that make him confused. One of the things he has tried to understand but has never even come close to succeeding is the ways of the girls who finally get a new job.

This morning, he saw a girl who comes in everyday to buy a strawberry smoothie come in the door as usual. She is an archer, with a modest composite bow and a quiver full of iron arrows. Taka thought she looked like a nice girl; she always said please and thank you, never failed to tip the waiter. This morning was the same as usual.

She comes in at six forty-six in the evening, just like she used to. But things have changed. Her heavy, protective armor is gone, and now she's wearing a skimpy top that shows a huge amount of her midriff and dips deep into her cleavage. Her shorts are tiny—he can see half her bottom (is that normal? He doesn't think it's normal…). Her composite bow is gone and now she wields a huge gakkung (how did she get it? Did someone give it to her?) She goes to order a raspberry shake and winks at the waiter as a thanks. A small amount of zenies are dropped on the table, and she leaves, tossing her hair back with a practiced motion. The waiter comes to pick up the money and Taka notices he can't take any of it as a tip.

He sips his hot tea and furrows his eyebrows in confusion. It was fast, so fast he didn't notice anything happened. One minute she was a docile archer and the next, a—he's hoping he's using the word correctly—a _slut_. Roasted condor doesn't seem to suit his tastes tonight, so he leaves a couple hundred zenies, double tipping the waiter, and makes his way out the door.

To his surprise, he is accosted by the very same girl he was watching not five minutes ago. She latches onto his arm and grins at him, yellow teeth flashing in his eyes.

"Oh my gosh! Hi!" She tugs her shorts down a little and rubs closer to him.

"H-hi. Who are you?" He is getting very nervous and wonders if he should ask her to back away a couple of steps.

"Oh, sorry! I'm Anna. I've seen you in the café a couple of times, and you've always like, totally caught my eye. Oh my gosh! Are you, like, a _sniper_ or something?" Anna says this all very fast, in one flowing breath. Taka wonders if she has rehearsed it.

"Yeah…I'm a sniper. Why?" He uncomfortably removes himself from her vise-like grip and backs a couple of steps away.

She takes a few steps forward and seems to thrust her chest to him face. "Oh _wow,_ that's _so_ amazing!" Ignoring his question, she sighs morosely and looks at him with wide, dilating pupils. The street lights make her look like a drunken whore. Taka wonders if this is what they actually look like. "Oh my gosh…you must be completely rich or something! Gosh, you'll _never_ believe what happened! I bought this bow, a gakkung I think it's called, and I spent _all_ my money on it. Gosh! I can't even use it, 'cause I'm just not experienced enough! How crazy is that! And now, I'm _so_ poor, I can't even buy an apple!"

For a second, Taka wonders if this is the reason why she didn't tip the waiter. And then he notices that he has never seen that necklace on her before. Or those earrings.

"Is that jewelry new?"

A blank looks passes through her. "Oh! Uh…yeah, well no, well my boyfriend gave it to me today."

_Oh._ He feels bad for thinking she's a liar in his mind. "Oh, okay."

"Yeah…I don't even have enough money to buy the string on this necklace anymore…I feel so useless."

Taka is really sorry for her, but he's confused as to why she's telling him this. "I'm really sorry…maybe your boyfriend can help?"

He walks away quickly, not knowing what to do.

The next day, Taka hears Anna saying the exact same things she said to him the day before to a paladin sitting in the café. It's confusing, but maybe she just likes to talk. He smiles at her and she shoots him a dirty look, and he notices that her eyes are as red as blood.

* * *

Shadows in Glast Heim obscure his vision as he makes his way to the churchyard. He goes there everyday, because he wants to put all those tortured souls to rest. Taka brings silver arrows to purify their hearts and sometimes, he shoots two or three of them at the same time at the particularly sad spirits. Sometimes there are malicious red bees that will fly at him there; he just runs from them because he's scared of what will happen if he shoots them.

He enters the churchyard and immediately hears the shuffling of decaying dead feet. A ghoul makes it way towards him, glazed eyes staring sadly in his direction. He knocks an arrow and fires it at its heart, or where he thinks it is anyway. It falls over and a gold ring, a piece of paper, and some handcuffs fall out of its pocket. Taka leans down to grab the handcuffs, careful not to touch the dead body. He is about to leave before someone stops him.

"Hey!" He turns around to see a priest standing where the ghoul lies.

"Hi." Feeling it would be impolite not to, he turns around and walks over to him.

The priest looks at him strangely. "Why the hell are you taking the handcuffs?"

Taka blinks. "I take them to the jail, of course. The manager always needs extra ones, because wizards like to burn through them."

More strange looks diverted his way. "I…see. What about the ring? _The card?_"

"I don't need any rings, and I've already got a card." He looks at his ballista, which he has heard other people call Scythelike. One time, a huge monster attacked him, and he shot, and shot, and shot, until he thought he was going to die. He beat it, and it dropped a piece of paper. That was all it left, and after the shock had worn off, Taka leaned down to pick it up. There was just a picture of the monster there, and he thought it might have been a portrait, before he remembered it was just a monster, and they probably killed painters instead of hired them. He was confused, like he often was, so he just grabbed his ballista and made his way out of the godforsaken maze he was in. Later, he couldn't find the paper and his ballista started to shoot at a lot of dead at one time. Someone finally told him what a card was.

The priest stares at him like he himself is a particularly foul ghoul. "Are you crazy? Sell it, for the love of God, if you already have one. People pay a lot of money for this kind of stuff." He shakes his head and adds, as an afterthought, "The ring, too."

Taka frowns at the priest. "I'm no merchant. I only take what I need anyway. If you want, you can have the card and the gold ring. But if you find any handcuffs, please give them to me."

After a goodbye, he walks away and sees the priest shaking his head out of the corner of his eye. He really doesn't want the card.

* * *

In his favorite café, Taka is eating spaghetti and drinking hot tea. It's a busy day, and almost all of the tables are full. A knight plops down at his table and smiles apologetically.

"Sorry, man. Everywhere else is full."

"That's okay." Taka eats his spaghetti and drinks his tea.

"So…are you a sniper?" The knight waits for his order of beer and savage.

"Um…yes." Taka wonders if this knight is going to complain about his banking problems also.

"Awesome, what level?"

"I'm not exactly sure…I checked two months ago and I was one hundred and six." He wonders if he is strange.

The knight's eyes seem to literally pop out. "One oh six! You gotta join our guild! You must be one twenty now!" He doesn't seem to notice the arrival of his meal.

"Oh, sure." Feeling pleased because this is the first guild offer he has ever received, Taka eats an extra large forkful of spaghetti.

"Awesome, just sign this form and you're in."

The next day the same knight meets with him in the café. "Hey, Taka. Guild's going hunting. We can sure use someone like you helping us!"

The little glow that enveloped him when he joined a guild evaporates. "…Hunting? Not werewolves?"

The knight laughs, showing off his slightly crooked teeth. "Course not. Moon's still quarter full. We're going after baphomet. Everyone wants a card, so we decided on whoever grabs it gets it. That is…if he even _drops_ one for us. Then again, if we don't get the card, I'll be pretty damn happy if I can just get his scythe or horns. Awesome equipment, that stuff. It's gonna be an awesome fight. Bapho's so hard to kill, but his blood is actually black, can you believe it?"

Taka feels like throwing up. Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood squirting onto his face, into his eyes, into his mouth, _dark, midnight black._ Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood dripping down his face from huge claw scratches, and he's going to die because it hurts too much but he has to keep alive because that black blood isn't _coming out fast enough. _Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood so thick that his hair has turned a different shade because _it never washed out_. Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood streaming down so fast that it mixes with his own so that he can't tell the two apart, can't tell if he _ever even really bled._

_Am I strange? Does everyone like blood?_

"I only kill the undead."

His guild member is now looking at him confusedly (I must be strange…). "Uh…why?"

"They don't bleed." Taka runs out of the café and throws away his guild badge into the nearest trashcan.

He wonders what color his blood is.

* * *

Winter comes and he hears news that Bapho has summoned a new monster from the depths of hell. He hopes he will never have to see it.

Two days later, Prontera is invaded by a massive, dark, human-like monster. Taka guesses it's Bapho's ally. He watches through the windows of his favorite café as novices and archers and sluts and knights and crusaders fall like dead leaves in its path. _So much blood_. He can't tear his eyes away from the scene. _Does this monster have black blood too?_ The only ones who seem to be able to stand up to the abomination are the paladins, the snipers, the high wizards, the high priests, the whitesmiths…_I should be out there_.

It's weakening, and now he sees that its blood is red, not black. Crazily, he notices Anna outside, running in the opposite direction, before the monster reaches out with a huge hand and knocks her off the streets. She bleeds crimson red.

The monster is dead. Its blood soaks with the blood of the novices and archers and sluts and knights and crusaders and Taka can't tell its body apart from theirs anymore.

The next day, people enter the café and brag about the treasures they got from the monster.

Taka wonders if they even know that people have died.

That the monster was human.


End file.
